Iowa Disease Surveillance System (IDSS)

The Iowa Disease Surveillance System (IDSS) enables local public health, hospitals, laboratories, and IDPH to collaborate electronically as they perform disease reporting and surveillance activities across the state. IDSS was first implemented in the Center for Acute Disease Epidemiology (CADE) in October 2008 and is now widely used by hospital, laboratories, and public health agencies statewide.

COVID-19 Reporting

If you are a laboratory or other type of organization and need to know how to report COVID-19 laboratory test results to the Iowa Department of Public Health, please complete the survey located at: https://is.gd/Report_COVID19_2_IDPH.

Policy

• IDSS Security and Confidentiality Policy  

IDSS Enhancements

• Enhanced Search Screens Overview  

Promoting Interoperability (formerly Meaningful Use) for Electronic Initial Case Reporting (eICR)

Electronic initial case reporting (eICR) is a new Meaningful Use objective that began in 2018. The state of Iowa uses the HL7 electronic initial case report (eICR) standards (R1.1 and R3) for electronic case reporting (eCR) and to support the new CMS Promoting Interoperability regulations for eCR. It is these standards that we will use to eventually eliminate manual reporting requirements. We also require the use of APHL AIMS and the Reportable Condition Knowledge Management System (RCKMS) to ensure appropriate reporting.

Video explanation of eICR

Download registration question set PDF version 

On-line Registration for eICR

The Road Ahead: Electronic (Initial) Case Reporting (eICR/eCR) - October 2022 ECR Update Questions and Answers

Promoting Interoperability (formerly Meaningful Use) for Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Meaningful Use Public Health Repository is not yet available. This repository is where public health agencies indicate meaningful use readiness and eligible hospitals (EHs), critical access hospitals (CAHs), and eligible professionals (EPs) declare their intent to pursue public health measures. This page will be updated and provide the link to the repository When the repository is available. For now, see the Public Health Meaningful Use letter posted at: https://idph.iowa.gov/InformationManagement/meaningful-use

Current status: On Monday March 26th, 2012, IDPH began accepting test messages constructed using the IDPH Implementation Guide and ELR Constrained Profile posted below and is now supporting all stages of Meaningful Use. See the IDPH ELR On-Boarding Checklist and IDPH Implementation Guide and ELR Constrained Profile for the process and specification details.

Submission of Reportable Lab Results (electronic laboratory reporting or ELR) objective: capability to submit electronic data on reportable (as required by state or local law) lab results to PH agencies and actual submission in accordance with applicable law and practice.

Since 2014, significant progress toward implementing statewide ELR in Iowa has been achieved:

• The majority of national reference laboratories used by Iowa hospitals and healthcare providers are sending laboratory results by ELR
• The majority of Iowa hospitals (>75%) pursuing Meaningful Use that perform in-house testing are sending laboratory results by ELR
• 2017 ELR initial reporting volume reached 95% of all laboratory result based reporting; direct entry into the Iowa Disease Surveillance System (IDSS) and paper based (fax or mail) reporting combined account for the remaining 5%.
• The transition from paper-based reporting prior to 2009 to electronic reporting has reduced the time from known laboratory result to public health intervention from 10+ days to approximately 1 day on average which greatly improves timeliness of public health intervention.

Achieving Promoting Interoperability (formerly Meaningful Use)

• The smartLab Just-In-Time Training Series
• IDPH ELR On-Boarding Checklist 
• IDPH Implementation Guide and ELR Constrained Profile V1.04.03.8 
• Meaningful Use and ELR Update Archive  
• IDPH smartLab Registration for ELR
• smartLab Registration Questions
• LOINC and SNOMED Encoding Guidance
• Example HL7 2.5.1 message with Explanation  
• IDPH ELR Simplified Message Format 

Other Resources 

• Reporting of Serological Tests for Syphilis March 1, 2021 
• smartLab Updates for Reporting Serological Tests for Syphilis 
• Ask On Order Entry Reporting Guidance 
• ELR Guidance for Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae - CRE
• Installing IDSS Instructions
• Re-registering the IDSS Application  
• STD Reporting Q&A  
• Laboratory Based Reportable Diseases and Conditions

For more information about IDSS contact:

Jill Newland
Iowa Disease Surveillance System Coordinator, Center for Acute Disease Epidemiology (CADE)
Iowa Department of Public Health
Lucas State Office Bldg.
321 E. 12th Street
Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0075
(515)422-6046

For more information about Promoting Interoperability (formerly Meaningful Use), ELR, or eICR, contact:

John Satre
Informatician, Bureau of Information Management
Iowa Department of Public Health
Lucas State Office Bldg.
321 E. 12th Street
Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0075
(515) 229-0417

You may also use the "Contact Us" page to submit comments or questions online.